News
- Climate
‘Tree farts’ contribute about a fifth of greenhouse gases from ghost forests
Greenhouse gases from dead trees play an important role in the overall environmental impact of ghost forests, a new study suggests.
- Space
China’s first Mars rover has landed and is sending its first pictures
The country just became the second nation, after the United States, to successfully land a rover on Mars. Its rover will search for subsurface ice.
- Climate
‘Zombie’ forest fires may become more common with climate change
Wildfires that survive winter underground can flare up after warm summers and account for more than one-third of the scorched ground in some regions.
- Animals
Mammal brains may use the same circuits to control tongues and limbs
When mice drink water, they make corrective motions with their tongues that resemble similar adjustments made by primates when they grab for objects.
- Life
European fire ant chemicals may send spiders scurrying away
Black widows and some other common spider species avoid spaces where fire ants once roamed, suggesting the insects could inspire a spider repellent.
- Health & Medicine
Cleaning indoor air may prevent COVID-19’s spread. But it’s harder than it looks
The size and setup of a room and how the room is used make finding simple ventilation and filtration solutions difficult.
- Physics
A newfound quasicrystal formed in the first atomic bomb test
Material formed in the wake of the first atomic bomb test contains a strange material that is ordered but that is not a standard crystal.
- Astronomy
The Milky Way may have grown up faster than astronomers suspected
Most of the galaxy’s disk was in place before a merger 10 billion years ago with a dwarf galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus/Sausage, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
MDMA, the key ingredient in Ecstasy, eases symptoms of severe PTSD
By the end of the trial, 67 percent of the participants who took MDMA had improved so much that they no longer qualified as having a PTSD diagnosis.
- Animals
The U.S.’s first open-air genetically modified mosquitoes have taken flight
After a decade of argument, Oxitec pits genetically modified mosquitoes against Florida’s spreaders of dengue and Zika.
- Animals
Elephants are dying in droves in Botswana. Scientists don’t know why
Some type of pathogen may be behind the recent deaths of 39 elephants, a new wave that follows 350 deaths last summer.
- Climate
Rivers might not be as resilient to drought as once thought
Seven years after Australia’s Millennium drought, water flow in many rivers isn’t returning to predrought levels.
